>
> However, I also listed another argument that is independent of MRI mapping
> and instead depends on the stages in human development. Empathy occurs in
> children relatively early, well before higher cognitive functions develop.
No, we see empathy appear in children when they reach the age of understanding that other people have minds. We take this for granted, but it's a quite complex notion: that thing over there has the same kinds of feelings and thoughts that I experience. This requires some pretty impressive metacognition (thinking about thinking). Very young children do not have this metacognitive skill, as any daycare teacher can tell you. Empathy is predicated on "higher" cognitive functions.
Miles